In her YA novel The Trouble with Flirting, Claire LaZebnik draws on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park for inspiration for both characters and plot, while making plenty of changes to keep her readers guessing what happens next. Her Franny Pearson gets to go to the Mansfield Theater Program in Portland, Oregon in the summer of her junior year in high school, except that instead of studying in the program, she has a job working for her aunt, sewing costumes for performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and Measure for Measure. Franny, like Austen’s Fanny Price, seems destined to be always in the wings, never on stage, and when the “super cute” Harry Cartwright appears on the scene, it seems obvious that, like Henry Crawford, he believes women will always find him irresistible.

Harry does try to defend himself when Julia Braverman tells him he assumes he’s irresistible, asking the girl next to him, “Marie, help me out here. Do I act like I expect all the girls are going to fall at my feet?” Julia and Marie, of course, both fall for Harry, just as Julia and Maria Bertram both fall for Henry Crawford’s charms. Franny admires Harry’s “gray-green eyes and thick dark blond hair,” and his imperfect but still very attractive features, but she’s also cynical about him from the very beginning: “Harry is lounging over by the drinks dispenser, and I do mean lounging: he’s kind of leaning his hip on the counter as he’s filling his cup, like he’s too cool to stand upright. I bet he practices that pose in his room at night.”

Franny has her heart set instead on Alex Braverman, the Edmund Bertram-like character, someone she had a crush on in eighth grade. Even his name suggests he’s the better man. Unlike Harry, Alex seems like the nice guy, the thoughtful one, the one who buys Franny books as a present, even when he’s dating Harry’s best friend Isabella. Harry doesn’t buy books – he buys Franny a cupcake. Franny doesn’t let go of her first impressions of him, but she does begin to acknowledge “he’s funnier and smarter than I’ve given him credit for.” Still, she concludes, “I guess guys like Harry can be good company so long as you don’t forget that they’re, you know … guys like Harry.”

Claire LaZebnik’s take on Mansfield Park is very funny and very smart, both familiar and surprising. Austen’s Mr. Rushworth makes an appearance, as the socially awkward but very rich James Rushport, owner of a silver Porsche convertible; Franny’s Aunt Amelia, like Austen’s Mrs. Norris, seems to derive pleasure from making her niece work hard; and the whole group goes on an expedition to the beach that resembles the Sotherton expedition in Mansfield Park. It’s a pleasure to recognize elements from Austen’s novel, and it’s entertaining to watch as LaZebnik remakes the characters and plot for her own purposes.

Not every author can pull this off in a way that simultaneously honors the original novel and delights the reader with new twists. Claire LaZebnik is that rare exception, and The Trouble with Flirting is an excellent homage to Mansfield Park – a delight for Austen readers, and for readers who have yet to discover any of Austen’s novels. I’ll resist the temptation to tell you many more details about the complexities of LaZebnik’s indebtedness to Austen, but I will say that her Franny Pearson desperately wants to study acting, and in that desire she could not be more different from Fanny Price….

I’m very happy to have discovered The Trouble with Flirting in the year of Mansfield Park’s 200th anniversary and I can’t wait to read Claire LaZebnik’s novel Epic Fail (inspired by Pride and Prejudice) and her newest book, The Last Best Kiss (inspired by Persuasion).

Hi Claire! You’re welcome — it was my pleasure. It was such fun to read something that was simultaneously so familiar and so new. Your treatment of the Edmund Bertram character was especially interesting. Are you planning to write novels inspired by the other Austen novels as well? I hope so.

I have two other YA novels already out that are based on Austen. Epic Fail is an update of Pride and Prejudice set at a private Los Angeles high school and The Last Best Kiss is a homage to Persuasion. And next year HarperTeen will release Wrong About the Guy, which is very loosely based on Emma. I love to reread Austen and think about how universal so much of her writing is–how even today we feel the same ways about our families and struggle in similar ways to find our place in the world. But of course it’s important to acknowledge that women today have many more choices–thank goodness!

Thank you! I’ve set myself the task of reading and posting short reviews of one Mansfield Park-inspired book or DVD a month, this year, and I needed three more. I’m getting this and reviewing it (much shorter than your review) for October.

I think that the author is doing a marvelous job of translating Mansfield Park in such way that the characters can be true to themselves yet still be understood by and engage the sympathies of an average modern reader.

Mrs. Darwin has not explicitly stated that the classic novel on which Stillwater is based is indeed Mansfield Park, but I’d be willing to bet my set of the complete works of Jane Austen that it is.

Thanks very much for the link to Mrs. Darwin’s novel — I’m looking forward to reading it. It must be so challenging to adapt a Jane Austen plot and put it in a contemporary setting. I haven’t read Joanna Trollope’s Sense and Sensibility (and I object to the appropriation of Austen’s titles in the Austen Project), but from the reviews I read, it sounds as if the modern setting she uses doesn’t quite work. I was really impressed that the setting worked so well in Claire LaZebnik’s novel. And the titles — both The Trouble with Flirting and Stillwater — make it clear that each one is a new novel, rather than an appropriation of Austen’s Mansfield Park.

Have they announced yet who will write the “Mansfield Park” novel in the Austen Project series? I haven’t read the other novels in the series but will probably read the MP one because it’s MP. Even though I’ll object to the title.

And since I’m almost-but-not-quite done, there’s still time to get in on the thrill of serialization.

I too heartily object to the arrogance of using Austen’s titles and character names unchanged, especially when (as sounds like the case with Joanna Trollope’s novel, which I’ve not read) the author keeps the shell of Austen’s plot without touching her moral core. The last I heard, they have not announced who will write the Mansfield Park version for The Austen Project (Curtis Sittenfeld’s P&P is coming out in the fall), but I have a nice manuscript almost all ready for them. 🙂 Here’s The Austen Project’s site: http://theaustenproject.com/

I’ve been reading things inspired by Mansfield Park this year to celebrate the bicentenary. I hope to read this one in a few month’s time. So far, my favourites have been ‘Whatever Love is’, which is a YA modern update by Rosie Rushton, and ‘Mansfield Revisited’, a MP sequel by Joan Aiken. I’m really enjoying my Mansfield reading challenge, and it sounds as though ‘The Trouble with Flirting’ will be a good addition to it.

I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it, Ceri. Please let me know if you post a review, in case I miss it. I haven’t read either of the books you mention, probably because I’m spending this year rereading Mansfield Park, over and over! I’m glad I found time to discover The Trouble with Flirting, and since you recommend these other two, I’ll definitely add them to my list — thanks.

But I’ve started The Last Best Kiss and I like it so much that I’ll probably have to read Epic Fail as well before I read anything else. So exciting to hear that Claire has a new book based on Emma coming out next year!

Now I’m even more interested to see your version of Emma, Claire. Hobbie DeHoy, I really like the comparison with Clueless. Different title, different setting, different story, and a fun adaptation of Austen’s plot and characters. Both The Trouble with Flirting and Clueless reimagine Austen’s novels in a way that’s both clever and respectful. (Neither makes me want to call upon “The League of Austen’s Extraordinary Gentlemen” to defend Austen’s honour. http://austenblog.com/2010/01/24/the-league-of-austens-extraordinary-gentlemen-part-the-first/)

After reading Sarah’s review…(I usually follow Sarah’s advice/views….except.. on calling MP a tragedy 🙂 !!) Lol, so glad this book isn’t a tragedy….surely even the ancient Greek philosopher who I dislike would surely agree???? I requested it from my PL and read it in a day. I loved it….even more so since I was just in Portland last week…and my flights were thru Phoenix(almost didn’t make out on the last leg do to a sand storm). Franny Pearson is a great heroine!! I’m not sure how the Modern Austen Project MP can compete with this one. @Claire Are you going to give Northanger a try? I hope so.

Lol, I liked Val McDermid’s Northanger hundred times more than the first Modern Austen Project(perhaps influenced even more by the nasty things the S&S author said about American Janeites!). Although she copied Jane Austen’s story faithfully, Val McDermid’s characters and the action didn’t seem formalistic, like the S&S one. She moved the main action to Scotland. I was very pleased with how she treated and wrote Catherine Morland(3rd or 4th on my heroine list!). And she made my least favorite hero less full of himself(Shirley of Austen in Boston called him a “Regency Metrosexual”).

Alexander McCall Smith’s Modern Austen version of Emma comes out in Nov.

@Sarah – Penderwicks moment – I was in a museum store the other day. A dad and daughter were looking at figurine angels. The daughter said “This one looks like Batty”. I nearly dropped the book I was holding. Lol, the dad was surprised that I was a fan. We discussed the long wait till the next book. I found a figurine that looked like Jane to me. Alas, my camera was not with me.

I’m delighted to hear that you enjoyed The Trouble with Flirting! And I agree — I’d love to read a Claire LaZebnik adaptation of Northanger Abbey….

(I haven’t given up yet on attempting to show you why Mansfield Park is a tragedy. Maybe the new version of my essay in the MLA collection will succeed in persuading you.)

Penderwicks moment! Thank you for telling me. But do you think the Penderwicks girls would want to be thought of as little angels? Was it an angel with butterfly wings? Long wait until the fourth book — but what will we do after the fifth and final one is published, and there are no new Penderwicks stories to look forward to?

Yes, an angel with butterfly wings! Lol, I would hope Jane would write a funny story. Rosalind would perhaps smile politely and consider the source. Batty would be delighted. And Skye…..well 3 out of 4 isn’t bad! Much like a certain Harry Potter author….perhaps the fifth one won’t be truly the last one. 🙂 (Isle of Denial).

Welcome!

I write about Jane Austen, Jane Austen for kids, and Edith Wharton. Sometimes I post about other writers I admire, such as L.M. Montgomery, and about places I love (especially Nova Scotia and Alberta). I taught writing at Harvard University before I decided to come home to Nova Scotia to write full time.

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A new blog series celebrating 200 years of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

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"I must keep to my own style & go on in my own Way; And though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other." Jane Austen to James Stanier Clarke, 1 April 1816

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